Mason Jar Herb Shakers are a great way to use your dried herbs year-round!

Have Herbs? Dry & Preserve in Mason Jar Herb Shakers!

July 15, 2015 - posted by Rebecca Adams

The best part of having your own garden is harvesting your own vegetables, fruits, and herbs. Drying herbs is simple, and with your own herb garden you can have the comfort of fresh and organic herbs and spices at your fingertips.

When to get ready

The early summer months of May and June is the best time to head over to your local nursery, and you can find an abundant supply of different herbs and spices to choose from. Some popular choices that do really well in the ground as well as in raised beds, are cilantro, thyme, basil, and chives.
Thyme growing

How to Pick and Dry Herbs

The process is easy: harvest the herbs before they flower and the best time is early morning before the sun hits them. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to finish the process, because it’s best if you start to prep your herbs for drying when you first pick them.

Make sure you wash gently and drain excess water, then tie a rubber band around the bottom with the herbs leaves facing down. Then hang in a moisture free area. It’s that simple!
Bundle of thyme drying

If you prefer, place the herbs on a mesh screen in a food dehydrator and let it run. This is a great method for parsley and chives: Cut the herbs with kitchen scissors, then let dry on a screen tray.

Kitchen Scissors - Ball Herb 5 Blade Scissors
My favorite part is crushing the herbs with a mortar and pestle!
Thyme in mortar & pestle

Store your Herbs in Mason Jar Shakers

Ball brand Mason Jar herb shaker caps

I love these Ball Mason jar herb shaker caps – so useful and super-affordable!

I love these shaker lids for regular Mason jars that you can personalize and put your homegrown spices and herbs in! They work great for pretty jam & jelly jars as well as the pint & a half size Mason jars. You can even work on your biggest regular-mouth Mason jars.

They have nice big holes so you can shake out sprinkles and sugar spots as well as your favorite herbs and spices. Even mini chocolate chips! Mmm!

Add a label and you’re set!

See more Mason Jar lids & drinking mugs here. Click here to see Canning jars, too.

Thyme in a Mason Jar herb shaker

Put a label on your herb shaker and you’re set!

Help Us Grow! Share this tip on Pinterest!

Check out how to turn your summer herbs into cute shakers!

Handy Bucket Builder at Smith and Edwards

Take a look at the Handy Bucket Builder in our Paint Department

October 17, 2013 - posted by Rose Marion

This little lid is the coolest thing to hit our Paint Department since we can remember!

Handy Bucket Builder shelf and display at Smith and Edwards

(Click to view larger!)

We use these bucket lids ourselves in the store

Randy, our Paint department manager, thinks you’ll love this product – and he’d know, he’s used it himself to build a whole nursery!

Yep, our outdoor garden center this spring and summer was built with Handy Bucket Builder lids, our Smith & Edwards Ace buckets, and 2 x 12 plywood placed flat on the lids, letting us set out our plants and flowers in tiers outside.
Forget-Me-Knots stacked on Handy Bucket Builders at Smith and Edwards

We used to build our garden center using lumber and cinderblocks. The cinder blocks were heavy – and they’d take up a ton of space, pallets and pallets, when it was time to take the garden center down for fall.

Pansies on Handy Bucket Builder at Smith and Edwards

Metal 2x4s work just as well as wood ones!


These lids stack up on top of each other in a column, and they’re lightweight – we hardly have to clear out any room to store them!

Come see these bucket lids in action

The Handy Bucket Builder Lid snaps on either the top or the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket. The buckets can be used upside down or not, so it’s ok if your bucket has trash, paint, wood, gravel, or sawdust in it. In fact, adding weight to the buckets will help them stay in place.

We built this sturdy shelf with just scrap wood and the Handy Bucket Builder lids and 5-gallon buckets.

We built this sturdy shelf with just scrap wood, stacked on Handy Bucket Builder lids and 5-gallon buckets. Come see for yourself!

We’ve got a display here at Smith & Edwards between aisles 9 and 10 so you can come see the Handy Bucket Builder lids in action. To make the display you see, we stacked one pair of buckets on top of another pair of buckets, with the lids inbetween. Then, we placed two 2 by 4s in the handy bucket builder lids. Lastly, we topped with a sheet of plywood. Simple as that, we’ve got a steady shelf that can hold a lot of weight – and it hardly took any time at all! You can make a more secure fit with screws and a drill – we didn’t have to, it was steady enough as-is.

You can also use 2×3’s, which will do the same job with less weight to carry.
Build a table for your Chop Saw with a Handy Bucket Builder from Smith and Edwards

Uses for the Handy Bucket Builder Lids

This is great for camping, taking to kids’ soccer or lacrosse games, and for bringing on trips with your RV or trailer. Storage is simple – simply stack up your buckets, stack the lids on top, and stand your lumber next to them.

Handy Bucket Builder lids are also a great way for you to store your Emergency Preparedness supplies as well as Food Storage.  Keep your canned or emergency food on shelves you can build quickly with lids, buckets, and lumber. Anywhere you need shelving that might have to get taken down or moved around – the Handy Bucket Builder lids are gonna do the job.

And they’re infinitely reusable, too.

You can build your setup to be as temporary or long-standing as you like.

The lids are made from a flexible and shatterproof type of plastic that’ll hold up through countless uses. You can even drill through the lid at indicated points for the best security.
Come visit our Handy Bucket Builder Lids at Smith and Edwards

Come in and get your lids today!

Come on in and get your lids at Smith and Edwards, they’re located between aisles 9 and 10 on our main aisle of the store. And, you can also order yours online!

Handy Bucket Builder Lid: $10.99
Smith & Edwards Ace 5 Gallon Buckets: $3.50

Check out a Handy Bucket Builder lids demo: